Summary

Organic farming aims to create an integrated, humane, environmentally and economically sustainable agricultural system. For organic dairy systems, the fulfilment of these aims requires the understanding and integration of a number of systems components including land use (mixed or dairy only) and stocking rate; grassland and forage production (including quantity and quality); potential milk yield (and milk quality); animal nutrition (largely farm based) and health; environmental sustainability such as farm nutrient balance; the financial status of the farm (including enterprise performance, fixed costs and labour use and farm income and profit) and finally the policy environment in which organic dairy systems operate. This review discusses worldwide research undertaken into each of these key components of organic dairy production systems. As converting organic dairy systems are often considerably different to established organic systems, both the converting and developed organic dairy system are discussed in this paper.